


that we may fall in love, every time we open our eyes

by wastethenight



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, figure skating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 12:37:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13590207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastethenight/pseuds/wastethenight
Summary: the one where daisy and lincoln are competitive ice dances (a small work)





	that we may fall in love, every time we open our eyes

**Author's Note:**

> a small gift for my dear friend!! clearly i wrote this really fast so its not super refined but its sweet i think!!
> 
> tumblr: burnbliind.tumblr.com  
> tip jar: ko-fi.com/burnbliind  
> playlist: http://burnbliind.tumblr.com/lightning-thunder  
> free dance visual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSl8yhb2XJY&feature=youtu.be
> 
> [title from sun by sleeping at last]

Lincoln remembers meeting Daisy, just as much, if not more, than she remembers meeting him; Lincoln knows this day like the back of his hand. He remembers the summer heat and blinding warm sun that contrasted from the cool air and fluorescent lights inside of the ice rink. It was almost always too loud inside with voices that would echo off the glass and fill the heights of the ceiling. People’s cheers, their falls, their blades that would carve into the ice with purpose and prose, hopes and dreams, it was all there for everyone to feast their senses upon. It’s respectful but cutthroat, it’s all a showcase of humanity in all its highs and sorrows, the nit and the grit right in front of your bare eyes no matter how young or old. 

The day they met was busy with a freestyle class more populated than normal and a following Friday night skate session that Lincoln almost missed due to an overflow of homework, which is a whole other story, of course. Lincoln remembers how he’d gotten his skates sharpened earlier that day and new skate guards to go with it - blue, they were blue. He still has the same pair that he refuses to get rid of (how could he get rid of them when he met her the same day? how could he throw those flowers away?) and he wears them at competitions. He’s almost superstitious about them, they’re translucent and fading, but he persists to continue on just as the story does.

 

They couldn’t have been older than ten, Lincoln thinks, but even then he can still feel the longing, the wanting to find his place. He didn’t have it all figured out at ten, or so - not that either of them do now - but he remembers trying, trying so hard to be enough, to have all the answers, he knew he was bright, he’d been told so. Lincoln was kind with a heart big enough to hold all the care in the country and he just wanted to do good, to be good. He was struggling but passing all his classes, going forward in science with flying colours and trying to memorize every bone in his body and skating with his heart; why didn’t it feel like it? Why could he do puzzles with his eyes closed and land clean doubles every try even though he wasn’t even that interested in them so why, why, why couldn’t he find what he needed? Where was a partner, where were the friends, where was the filling to the cavity in his chest that makes his hands shake and sweat? 

He’s not sure he’s any better fifteen years, give or take, later but he knows, he knows for sure, that this day helped. This day changed his life. 

He remembers her big brown eyes and toothy smile and her overconfidence even back then, he remembers her laughing with her head thrown back across the ice from him at something her friend had said from behind the boards. It was the kind of laugh that was contagious with its snorts and closed eyes that you can’t help loving and laughing with because it’s so heartfelt, so genuine and true. It stopped him in his tracks, in all honesty, he was left staring there in his wonder and it’s not like she ever left his mind. He couldn’t believe it when his mother and coach encouraged him going to meet her, telling him how she was new in town and working under his coach’s wife; she was clearly making herself at home. 

Next time she was off the ice he was there waiting for her with a shy smile almost hiding behind the leg of his coach, he wasn’t afraid per say but he definitely didn’t feel the boost of self assured energy he needed. But it didn’t matter, she stuck her hand out so excited and unapologetic to introduce herself as Daisy and god, she was so happy to meet him. Daisy was big grins and big plans and the warmest feeling you have ever felt and who is he kidding - she still is. She’s still the nicest, strong willed and strong hearted person you’ll ever see. 

They made pinky promises to see each other the next day for some time on the ice together and when the day came she would take him by his hand and lead him out with her. They already had, but they would really find ice dance six months later sitting together watching the annual Winter Olympics together and of course they truly fell in love with it then. Lincoln loved the softness of it, the hints of hopeless romanticism in it, the bursts of music and the lifts and the trust required, the commitment it would take. They were itching for it, Daisy loved the challenge and the energy of it and all the precision, the hard work and once she sets her mind to something the conversation is over; it is happening.

Their coaches would end up teaming up, historic ice dancers from many years ago trying to coach the successful future of the sport, Daisy and Lincoln got lucky. They trained passionately with no regrets, pushing themselves until they couldn’t or the line was drawn for them, they were completely submerged in everything ice dance. From the protocols and handbooks to new diets and daily routines, they were in it together, always together. They had to keep tabs on each other, learning when they needed to pull the other back and when things got too heated and someone needed space which came surprisingly quickly to them. 

They pick up on one another and started to notice even the little things, like how Daisy always has to have something on the boots of her skates (first it was stars, then lightning bolts - she has hearts now) or how she has to lean into her edges when she first takes the ice. Or how Lincoln gets upset with himself too quickly and unfairly or how he touches the ice before every practice, every competition, every exhibition. 

The way Daisy noticed and still notices things about Lincoln feels different though, it always has and always will, she picks up on almost everything immediately, she doesn’t even have to say a word to him most of the time before she would lay it out like it is. There’s only been a handful of times he’s been able to really, truly stump Daisy which are as follows.

The first is the day Lincoln asked Daisy out, officially, it was clumsy and flawed and she loved it much to his relief and this is for sure a day that Lincoln remembers more than Daisy, at least from his point of view. Not that Daisy wouldn’t remember it but this is a day that it felt like Lincoln had whole galaxies and worlds in his hands and on his shoulders, he was so nervous, there’s no way every single detail couldn’t be etched into his memory forever. He remembers being about fourteen and getting her these deep red roses that hardly fit in the locker he was renting at the rink and he had been far too casual over text messages so she wouldn’t catch onto the surprise; it confused her. Daisy knew something was off because of how he had been so neither here nor there that day but she had absolutely no clue until she was about to leave the rink and a blonde boy with a whole bouquet of flowers was right in front of her. 

He asked her with words that couldn’t decide if they were confident or too self conscious and she definitely didn’t have to if she didn’t want to he promised he would understand he just wanted his friend to be happy no matter what, really. She wanted to though, and she was happy, she accepted the flowers and beamed at him like the brightest star in the sky and Lincoln will never forget how beautiful that day was. The days are still very beautiful and Daisy’s smiles and cackles continue to be the light in the world for Lincoln and he likes it this way very much; the stars are perfectly aligned, all is right. They’ve been together ever since, but not without struggle which leads to the second time that Daisy has been unable to use her very obvious super power of knowing Lincoln almost uncomfortably well. 

It wasn’t as much a day as a period of time where Lincoln started coming to the rink less and less, he followed through with practices but it felt like his heart wasn’t all the way in it and Daisy didn’t like this time at all. They were seventeen and in the thick of life with school and upcoming adulthood being hurled at them from all directions in all intensities; it was hard to say the least. When Lincoln started dropping practices and getting quieter he would do so at the last minute, leaving Daisy standing in the dust of what was supposed to be alone and confused and very, very worried. She wasn’t necessarily angry but she was frustrated and sad and so lost in the situation, she didn’t understand what was going on and it felt like maybe she never would, maybe this would be the end of all things. That was scary - terrifying, actually.

Daisy remembers being curious, not to bask in wonder but just out of sheer, genuine uncertainty and bewilderment; they’d been best friends for seven straight years and never was there anything like this. Sure, Lincoln’s worries and sadness that may have been a bit more than what they appeared to be was close but not close enough for Daisy to read. If Daisy had to have guessed he was...off, he was off without a doubt; but there was some secret amount of more to it. She tried asking but it only felt like it made things worse, Lincoln would stop talking for days unless it was at a very necessary practice and he wouldn’t bother to cancel half of the time. He’d still try to show up frequently because it’s not like he didn’t care anymore (right? sometimes Lincoln isn’t even sure on this) he just was upset and angry and overwhelmed at everything and he didn’t want to be but he didn’t know how to handle it, so he didn’t. 

Overwhelmed and lost were two big understatements for Lincoln though, very severe understatements. He was tense all the time and he had so many things to do, so much homework and college applications and too much pressure from what felt like everyone. Skipping a class one day turned into skipping three to hang out with people he’d never talked to in his life under the school bleachers which turned into two cigarettes which turned into a huge mess that he didn’t know how to get out of. Lincoln started going to places he didn’t even like and doing things that he could never imagine himself doing to just get away from all the people and to try to get away from himself (it didn’t work).

One day after their coaches had left Daisy struck up conversation from across the ice with Lincoln, no one else present but the two of them because she couldn’t just let this go on. She pushed and pushed because Daisy Johnson does not give up and it was all fine until Lincoln raised his voice a little too loud and wiped it his face a little too clearly and cried a little too hard. She sat him down on the ice where they stayed until they all but froze into the surface, his hands in hers, her promising that they were going to figure this out together. Lincoln could agree to that. 

Whenever he wasn’t feeling well he would text her or call her, go to the rink and practice if they could where they’d be there for hours; sunup to sundown, Lincoln thinks it’s safe to say Daisy kept her promise. Finally she got it, she got it all, it took weeks but it was all worth it for the inevitable. It wasn’t easy, it isn’t easy but they’re doing it - he’s doing it. Daisy and competition is still what keeps Lincoln clean and sober and where he needs to be, as well as an arsenal of coping mechanisms and life experiences that seventeen year old Lincoln didn’t have. He’s grateful and always tries to pay it back to everyone around him, Daisy reminds him that he needs to pay it back to himself too and it’s good, it’s so good. 

Somehow they’ve both made it to twenty five together, they’re highly competitive ice dances in love with a solid education that they wish everyone had access to. They’ve fought, they’ve cherished, they’ve fallen and they’ve conquered, even through injuries they are here together. They still make wishes on eyelashes together and everything is just as fun as before, the two of them can’t tell if life is better now or just different so they decide on both. 

They take time out of their schedules to host practices for a lesser amount because they think skating, the special thing that it is, should be for everyone, everyone should have their dreams at their fingertips. Lincoln helps the kids study for their exams when they’re logging extra hours at the rink and Daisy always, always, always helps the girls with their hair before local competition. It’d feel ignorant to not try to help where they can, they joke with each other saying that the other has too big of a heart when in reality they both do.

But Nationals is in two days now and it’s not a given that they have it in the bag but if it's up to them they’ll put themselves in the conversation. They practice too hard for themselves not to, they’re practicing more unconventional lifts and they’ve just had a full week of training with aerial artists, they’re ready even though they only half feel it. Daisy is always ready and Lincoln knows that once they take the ice side by side waiting for their tracks to start he’ll be just fine. 

Granted, Lincoln is stressed and Daisy can tell, their last two days to spare include a lot of time at the rink and a lot of time together, Daisy has this ritual that before and after every competition she journals about it. Daisy will write letters to her younger and older self while Lincoln leans against her, watching from over her shoulder and laughing when she writes something comical with his own jokes here and there. They do what they can with the time they still have but before they know it they’re lacing up their skates before their warm up. 

By the time the free dance rolls around they’re in second and they already know the team ahead of them has left points on the table. Lincoln does feel okay standing next to Daisy like he knew, he always does, it’s impossible not to. The minute her hands are against his chest everything in the world feels right where it should be. They’ve lived their whole lives for this moment, from dancing in the parking lot after the rink hits closing hours to all the times Daisy laces and relaces her skates to get them perfect. This is the moment their ten, fourteen, seventeen and beyond aged selves have worked so hard for.

They know that this is it by the time they get to their first lift and to hear the crowd cheer for their program is an unparalleled feeling and Lincoln loves how Daisy’s hand feels in his. He loves how her dress and hair blow in the wind when she skates and how her eyes light up and how she has all her plans. Daisy loves him just the same and they really were meant to ice dance together, their fates were not playing games when they crossed one another’s path at such a young age. They can see their coaches together out of the corner of their eyes, Coulson jumping up and down and May with her arms crossed, nodding; all their hard work paid off too. They can only imagine Coulson going I told you so to his old partner and how she would shake her head laughing, but in the end she’d have to give it to him for that. 

Lincoln has tears in his eyes by the end of it and really lives up to the name of the Kiss & Cry booth where they receive their scores. They’re good enough, they’re beyond good enough to show their body of work and prove their standings. Daisy interlaces their fingers and cheers while Lincoln just sits shocked and teary but smiling, of course (Daisy has that effect on him). All is well, a bright future ahead of them and many, many more stories to tell and, yeah, Lincoln is so glad for that warm summer day.


End file.
